andyring

Like it or not, this will hurt the Biden administration more than Apple.

Why?

Trump can run ads and have talking points like “Now Joe Biden wants to take away your gas stove, your reliable gas-powered car AND your iPhone!"

Here's what doesn't make sense to me.

There are TONS of HomeKit enabled light switches. So the entire switch is inside the electrical box in the wall.

So far I can find a grand total of ONE outlet that is HomeKit enabled. As in, the outlet itself, not needing to plug in a big chunky brick into an existing outlet. I wish there were more options here!

I have no idea if this kind of thing is Apple's "target market" or not but here we go...

I think this field in general will explode for the training realm. I'm not into gaming and hardly ever watch a movie.

I fix locomotives for a major railroad.

A month ago I was in a class for the newest class of diesel locomotives. It was a two-week class, because these units are incredibly complex. A week or so before the class, I spent a day going through most of the class tasks with a VR headset. I think the ones we used were Oculus if I recall. It was a VR headset and a controller for each hand. I was able to go through a pretty realistic environment to remove and replace various locomotive components all in VR. It was very well done. Myself and others in the class were literally turning virtual wrenches, using virtual power tools, and so on. And we could do it SAFELY!!! Some of these components carry significant risk. We're talking 25,000 psi fuel pressure (no, that is not a typo). And 19,000 psi of tension force on piston components.

In the VR world, I could go through those tasks multiple times, SAFELY, until I was comfortable with it, without worrying about a mistake maiming or killing me.

Translate this to the world of medicine for instance. Imagine a surgeon being able to practice surgery in VR without needing a cadaver. Or a paramedic responding to a nasty car crash and mangled patients and doing the training all in VR.

This type of thing is where I believe the future of VR is headed.

I made almost this exact switch a year ago. Went from a 13 Pro (not the pro max) to an SE3. I had the 13 through my employer but I was changing jobs and had to go out on my own. In fact, my wife made a similar change around the same time, going from a 12 Pro to an SE3. We now have three of them in the house, including our 17-year-old's phone.

I'd say overall my biggest challenge is the battery life. But I'm rarely far from a power outlet and I use it less during the day. Went from an office job to working in a locomotive repair shop. Technically we aren't supposed to use our phones on the shop floor but no one cares. Having said that, if I'm on top of a locomotive with a fall protection harness on for 2 hours changing a radiator, I'm not playing around on my phone and using up battery life.

By far the biggest plus is the cost savings. Sure I could have gotten a 13 Pro on my own but didn't want to pay for it. As it stands now, we pay about $150 a month for three phones with the payment plan and service. They still all do what we need them to do.

There is something to be said for the camera too I'll admit. A couple years ago on vacation when I had a 12 Pro and did Disney World, that was the only camera I took, which was a stretch for me. This year when we go on vacation, I'm bringing my full size Canon. I don't care what iPhone you have, none of them have a 200m zoom lens.

I have several all over the house and they work great.

My 9-year-old loves his. He's got rope lights in a few places in the house, and he can tell Siri (via a homepod mini) to turn on/off his reading lights or desk lights and so on.